Ministry Profile - New Life Deaf Ministry

As we have mentioned many times, many in our congregation are involved in various types of ministries here in Honduras. It is truly a blessing to be associated with so many quality people and ministries. To give you a feel for the congregation and to introduce you to ways that you can pray for Honduras or perhaps even minister here, we will be profiling the ministries represented in our congregation from time to time.

New Life Deaf Ministry

On Saturday we had the privilege of attending the first sixth grade graduation of Manos Felices (Happy Hands) a school for deaf children. The school is part of a larger ministry called New Life Deaf Ministry or Ministerio de Sordos Nueva Vida, a ministry that includes a church and community outreach in addition to the deaf school. This year's graduation was of particular importance as it represented the culmination of many years of growth. The school has added a grade level every year and these students were in the inaugural class. In the coming year they will be continuing the program by beginning high school classes for the first time.

The needs of the deaf are left virtually untouched here in Honduras. This school and church are among the only ones of their kind. Many families with deaf children are dismissive of their children's prospects and must be convinced that education is worth it. Many deaf are unable to find work and are thus heavily dependent upon family or other limited resources. Accordingly the work of NLDM is extremely important. The school is slowly changing cultural perceptions about the value of deaf persons in human and Honduran society. Among the school's faculty is a woman who was the first deaf Honduran to graduate from the education program at a Honduran university. 

Union Christian Church was privileged to host the graduation ceremonies and further blessed to have the ministry's director, Christy, among our members, as well as one of the pre-school teachers, Beverly. We are personally blessed to count these women as our friends and New Life Deaf Ministry as partners in the cause of the gospel. (And Ellyn has been building a friendship with Carolina, the hearing child of a deaf couple that works with the school. Carolina attends Union frequently.)

We invite you to visit NLDM's website (yes, it's in English) to learn more about this vibrant and important ministry.

Thanksgiving (again)!

We hope that all of you enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. We celebrated the day with a meal and time of thanks at Union Christian Church complete with turkey, pumpkin pie, and Packer football. (It should be noted that it doesn't feel as much like football when the commentary is in Spanish. Something not right there.) There were over 60 people in attendance, many of them "visitors". It was our goal to expand our celebration beyond the church family and we were happy to have English-speakers from other churches and ministries, members of the Ministerio de Sordos Nueva Vida (New Life Deaf Ministry, a church and school), as well as several Honduran families. Below are some pictures of the festivities. (For more pictures you can visit the church's Facebook page.)

The fellowship hall prepared for the meal

The spread!

The crowd

The more the merrier

This group is watching the Packers-Lions

game in the church foyer.

One happy customer!

Thanksgiving!

We give thanks today for all that God has done in bringing us to this place and making it our home.

We thank all of you who have participated in one way or another through prayer and financial support.

We thank our new church home at Union for the warmth and love with which we have been received.

Thank you!


Note: No, Thanksgiving is not a recognized holiday in Honduras. However, given the percentage of North Americans in the congregation we will be celebrating today in the traditional ways: football and feasting.

Funny little stuff

In visiting any culture there are big things to adjust to as well as small, even funny differences. For instance, we have never forgotten how weird it was to us that in England we ate potato chips in flavors like "prawn" and "roasted chicken." As I recall, they tasted like potato chips.

A trip to the grocery store here reveals several such differences.

Products in bags. Many things come in bags here that don't usually in the States. We can by in a bag: vegetable oil, mustard, milk, tomato paste, refried beans, mayonnaise, and many other products. I don't know whether it is more environmentally friendly or not but it is interesting. The oil and mayonnaise bags actually have a screw top at one corner for easy open and close.

Customer service. I've commented on this before. It is up and down. In some ways it is better, others worse. We think it is funny, yet helpful, that just as you enter the produce section of the grocery story there is an employee with a basket of plastic produce bags already taken off the roll and peeled open. I've long fought with those crazy bags but never thought it was worthy of a minimum wage worker to help me with them.

Eggs. Here the eggs are not refrigerated and come in multiples of 5 rather than dozens. So we buy 15 eggs at a time. (I also find it silly that the brand name Debbie usually gets is "Mister Huevo". Not "Señor Huevo" but "Mister").

Dish soap. While you can (and we do) buy liquid dish soap, the more common form of the product here is a tub of hardened soap (the texture reminds me of Lava soap) that one uses by rubbing it with a sponge and then applying to the dishes. This method uses less water, a valuable commodity during the dry season.

This list could go on, I suppose, but this is enough to make the point that there are many little things that make us say, "Huh. Hadn't thought of doing it that way before!"

Unintentional hiatus

Regular followers of this journal will have noticed that there hasn’t been much to follow regularly, at least of late. You need not assign this to waning will on my part but rather (again) on the vicissitudes of our internet connection. While my connection at the church is much more consistent I confess that it does not usually occur to me to post from there.

Aside from our intermittent internet we are generally well. Events around us have, of late, sharpened our awareness of the challenges of life and ministry here. But that is why we came so we do not complain but put our shoulders to the plow in earnest.

As always, we are grateful for your prayers.

Missing all the fun

Several times recently Debbie has related to me her adventures in communicating with Spanish-speakers. She has spoken to the guard at church multiple times and even managed to get information from the garbage man about what days he comes. She is quite aware of her linguistic limitations and very self-effacing when relating these events to me, willingly including details of her failure. I never fail both to be amazed by her results and get a chuckle out of the proceedings. The only thing I regret is that I never get to see these verbal forays in person!

EST, DST, CST, whatever

A gentle reminder for those of you who have a hard enough time remembering the details of your own time zone. Honduras is on true Central Standard Time, meaning that we neither leap forward nor fall back. Accordingly, now that all you United Statesians have shifted one hour back, the Central Standard Time Zone is now the same as we are, while our family and friends in the Eastern Time Zone are now only one hour ahead of us. As I don't regularly talk to anyone in either the Mountain or Pacific time zones, you're on your own to figure it out.

Clear?

Your next question

I am sure that the last post raised questions for you about our security. If you have those questions (and especially if you're related to us) I'm not sure there is much that I can say that will completely allay your fears. However, I can tell you how we live with the reality.
   I would say that I don't feel perpetually insecure though we are always wary. Car doors are always locked, including while driving (Ellyn often serves as our reminder). If we have to leave something in the car while we are in a store or whatever, we try to stow it out of sight. As in almost any city, there are neighborhoods that we just don't visit or even drive through. We don't do much after dark (which can be a challenge as the sun sets relatively early here).
   While no place is completely secure we do feel safe enough where we are living. There is restricted access and a guard posted there around the clock. Entrance to our neighborhood doesn't lead anywhere--there are two cul-de-sacs--so we don't have traffic, including foot traffic. Debbie and Ellyn regularly walk around the corner inside our neighborhood (maybe 100 meters) to an enclosed playground and swimming pool area accessible only to members of the community.
   We regard these and other steps we take as the better part of wisdom but we don't regard them as our ultimate safety. We pray regularly (and invite you to do the same) for our safety and that of our friends because we believe that we move and live in the domain of the Great Protector of the sheep.

Just facts

This is not a feel good post nor an especially informative one except insofar as it will tell you something about Honduras. And I only tell you this because you can find the information elsewhere and I want you to know that we are not ignorant of it nor would we gloss over its importance. These are just the facts.

In one of the local newspapers the other day was a report indicating that Honduras was on schedule to qualify as the world's most violent country for the year 2011. The statistic that seals our ignoble victory is 86 violent deaths per 100,000 people. I will testify to the fact that a day does not go by that one reads in the news of murders and assassinations, some of them obviously opportunistic and others meticulously planned. Many are attributed to narco-trafficking or gang activity.

The above statistic is tragic but another number in the article left me truly disturbed. It is estimated that as many as 98% of those crimes are never brought to justice. This is for various reasons: lack of investigative resources, lack of will, and corruption within the police agencies. There is nothing just about these facts.

This number was more sobering to me. Scripture makes clear that God is a God of justice. The prophetic books record numerous rebukes against the unjust practices of those in power in the Israel of that day. Indeed, God has delegated to kings and leaders the responsibility to enforce justice. I tremble at the thought of the day that God holds these leaders accountable for the failure to pursue justice for their people.

Pray for the people and leaders of Honduras that God might show mercy to this people and this place and that peace and justice might reign for the glory of Jesus Christ.

With

I am pleased to report that as of sometime today our internet at home is up and working. It is in the larger scope of things a small detail, but after the series of calls that we went through I was very relieved to find it working when I got home.

Proof that we've got our priorities straight

The futon is not put together, but the rocking horse is!